Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena announced yesterday that 26-year-old Trejean D. Curry of Minneapolis has been charged with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision that killed Father Denny Dempsey, a beloved figure in Northfield who served as pastor at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church from 2004 until 2019.
On October 25 of last year, Curry was driving west on County Road 42 in Rosemount when he struck Father Dempsey who was riding his bicycle on the shoulder of the road. Dempsey was pronounced dead at the scene.
Curry is accused of operating the car in a grossly negligent manner and specifically that he was driving on the shoulder while possibly looking at his phone.
Curry has had nine convictions for operating a vehicle while his driving privileges were revoked since 2015, five for lack of insurance, two for speeding, and one each for an instructional permit violation and passing another vehicle in a prohibited area. He also has another speeding charge pending in Dakota County.
UPDATE: Curry appeared in a Dakota County courtroom this morning. Judge Jamie Cork set bail in the amount of $200,000 without conditions, and $75,000 with conditions. His next court appearance is April 14,
Climate Action a major part of Pownell’s State of the City
During her State of the City Address on Monday night, Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell highlighted the progress the City of Northfield has made in becoming a more climate friendly town.
The mayor took time in her speech to focus on the city’s Climate Action Plan and the goal of using only carbon free electricity by 2030. She said the city has accomplished a great deal in the past year, but there is still more work to be done.
This past year, she said, the City Council and City Staff worked very hard to create a new three-year strategic plan, and Climate Action was made one of the six strategic priorities. It lays out key climate initiatives and their desired outcome, to keep the issue in front of the city government and ensure that decisions are being made with climate change among the standard considerations.
One of the issues identified in the plan is already playing out. The mayor said the city has received a grant from the State of Minnesota to combat the Emerald Ash Borer. The insect has not yet been found in Northfield, but an infestation is currently making its way through the state. She said the grant will help the city to take defensive action before it gets to Northfield to help mitigate its effect.
Another program she pointed to is the Home Energy Audits performed by Excel Energy in partnership with the city. The mayor proudly announced that more homeowners had taken advantage of the program than any of the other cities of similar size against whom Northfield tends to compare itself.
She touted the city’s commitment to electric vehicles, referencing the ReCharge Northfield event held last fall. The mayor said the event was able to raise awareness of how EV’s can work in Minnesota, and said another event is planned in Northfield for later this year.
And she referenced the new Sustainable Building Policy which will be mandatory for all commercial buildings that receive help from the city in the form of aid or tax increment financing.
She said in 2022, the city will continue to increase its use of solar power and is hopeful to receive help from the state to modernize the city’s electrical grid.
District exploring new science for reading education
About fifty people from the Northfield School District are currently going through training that will help them to better educate the younger
students who are just learning to read.
Hope Langston, the district’s Instructional Servce Director said about a third of the Pre-K through 5th grade students in the district are not reading at grade level. To that end, the district is taking advantage of a program approved in a bi-partisan effort at the capitol called LETRS which will actually teach the trainees about how the brain learns to read, so they can take that information with them back to the classroom and apply it to the standard curriculum.
LETRS is an acronym that stands for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. Langston said the program is a rigorous one involving book learning, online learning, and two one-on-one online components for each of the eight units. All told those who finish the training will put in about 144 hours of work.
Langston said the program brings a change in thought to the way students learn how to read. The generally accepted model is that each kid learns differently, but Langston said that is just not the case when it comes to reading.
“We know that all kids can learn to read. There is actually one way to learn to read and it’s connecting your visual brain with your language center and laying down the pathways between those two parts of your brain. And so, while we used to think that kids learn naturally, it’s actually not so. Kids need to be taught very explicit foundational skills so that they can learn to read.”
Langston said the research to support this was done many years ago, but the translational science that brings the idea to the classroom is new, and she calls it a “gamechanger.”
The best example of its effectiveness, in fact, comes from Mississippi, which has perennially been at the bottom of the reading-at-grade-level rankings in the country. The Mississippi legislature required every teacher in the state to take the training, and the state saw immediate results before the Covid-19 pandemic set in.
Langston said there is discussion within the legislature right now to expand the funding, allowing for more people to receive the training.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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